Dear Member/Member Practice/Student,

Update on First Meeting with ACCA on MRA

The legal and rightful process of negotiation of a new Mutual Recognition Agreement ("MRA") between your Institute ("HKICPA") and the ACCA that started in June following our issuance of a notice to ACCA has apparently caused considerable anxiety and confusion among our members and students and those of ACCA.

To the many of you who have written to the Institute offering support or seeking clarification, I thank you for taking the trouble to write.

However, despite our attempt to explain the Institute's position, I continue to receive letters seeking clarification of ACCA's recent accusations on the Institute.

We regret that the ACCA's recent actions have conjured an image of the Hong Kong Institute of CPAs as an organisation that breaks its contracts, violates Hong Kong's obligations under international trade agreements (GATS), has no regard for students outside its own QP,"stabs old friends in the back" and violates international best practice. They even called for stripping the Institute of its regulatory role.

Your Institute considers all the public accusations have been groundless and unnecessary. To stop further speculations on these issues, we need to set the record straight. Please click here for our response. <http://www.hkicpa.org.hk/whatsnew/ACCA_response.pdf>

Let me say first and foremost that students' interests are being looked after. Our transitional provisions together with our bridging programme, the details of which will be announced soon, will ensure that existing ACCA students will have a reasonable route to become HKICPA members if they so wished.

The Institute's sole purpose is to do what is right and in the best interest of its members, students and Hong Kong.

The First Meeting with ACCA

The first face-to-face meeting with ACCA, which took place yesterday in a neutral place, was beneficial and constructive, not least because the ACCA made its wishes and reasons for their actions known, and has promised in future that they will work with us in a cordial manner.

At the meeting, both sides reached an understanding and agreed a working time-table for the negotiation and review process to take place.

I shall keep you informed of progress as soon as they are reached.

I take this opportunity to reiterate that your Institute's strategy is to implement our policy as clearly laid out in our 1993 Third Long Range Plan and subsequent Position Papers.

We are working to move the accounting profession to the next plane. Hong Kong needs to uphold and promote its own high standards, stand out of the shadow of others, and rise to our rightful place in the international arena. We need to do this for the future of Hong Kong as a pre-eminent financial and commercial centre against rising standards, expectations and challenges.

I call on you to work with us to achieve this aim.

To the many of you who have written to the Institute seeking clarification or offering support, I thank you for taking the trouble to write. We need your opinions and support to be on the right course moving forward.